If you want to work for the IMF, World Bank, Emirates, Import-Export Bank, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Petrobras etc., you should know they are all state owned businesses and you need to understand what is the role of state owned businesses, and broadly, what is the role of government, to succeed in those organizations.

In fact, if you want to run for any political office, if you want to work with a government or are in the private sector and want to partner with a government, listen to this podcast.

Note that in this podcast we move away from the politicized explanation and address this question independent of the parties that are in power at any point in time. You don’t need to get involved in those discussions to understand the role of government.

In essence, the role of government is to invest in things needed by a country’s population that the private sector cannot or will not provide. This definition has profound implications for the way the government should be run.

In any country there a is seemingly unlimited number of problems to be solved. Whatever country you look at, United States, Canada, Australia or Russia, there are more problems than the money to fix them all. So there is a seemingly unlimited amount of problems being chased by a limited amount of capital that can be deployed to fix those problems.

Logic will dictate that the government should fix a needed problem until the sector becomes attractive to the private sector and then it withdraws when the private sector moves in to serve that market well. Government then can deploy the freed up capital to address another pressing problem the private sector cannot or will not address. And that is why we say the government should not compete with the private sector. And that is the way a sound government should work.

In this podcast we use economics to explain what is the role of government, when governments should intervene, how they should intervene and when they should hand over certain activities to the private sector. This is one of the most insightful strategy podcasts on the entire website. If you want to further your understanding of strategy at the highest possible level you should listen to this.

If you enjoyed this conversation we will be so grateful if you jump over to iTunes and share a quick review. It helps more people find us.

Also a huge thank you for making “Strategy Skills” one of the most popular podcasts in the world for careers.

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